'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

story must be hidden as much as possible so the story appears to simply “happen.”
Moreover, the story appears as if it is taking place now, before the eyes of the spectator
and thus has an aura of immediacy. This is the typical form of representation of
Hollywood films (Metz 546-7). The realistic style of Holocaust and Heimat and the
carefully reconstructed mise-en-scène impart a strong reality effect to the film (Kaes 29,
Aitken 221). Moreover, Holocaust and Heimat exhibit characteristics of the family
melodrama such as the presentation of the domestic sphere, the uses of music to
accentuate pathos, the episodic structure, and the moral polarization of the characters
(Elsaesser, “Tales” 573).
Deutschland, bleiche Mutter also fits some of the conventions of cinematic
realism and melodrama. Many of the enacted scenes are filmed in a realistic style and
Lene‟s story is certainly one of suffering. Ellen Seiter criticizes the film for its use of
“realistic and melodramatic codes” arguing that they tend to depoliticize the film (569).
She states “My concern […] is with the way that the filmmaker‟s use of melodramatic
codes obscures the ability to read the family narrative in political, rather than in pathetic
terms” (573). However, I argue that Sanders-Brahms‟ use of realistic and melodramatic
codes does not diminish the political aspects of the film. This is because the director uses
various formal techniques to disrupt the “illusion of the reality” and to provoke the
viewer to think critically about the greater political issues being presented in the film
diegesis. Filmmakers of New German Cinema are often perceived as making films that
oppose Hollywood traditions. One of Fassbinder‟s contributions to New German Cinema
was an attempt to fuse melodrama with Brechtian distanciation (McCormick, Politics
196). Fassbinder sought to create films that stood somewhere between the two poles of
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